Washington, DC, April 29, 2010 – Honduran President Porfirio Lobo tells Voice of America (VOA) that U.S. President Barack Obama is offering to help Honduras investigate the recent string of deadly attacks on journalists in the Central American country.

President Lobo told the VOA Spanish language program Foro Interamericano (Inter-American Forum) that Mr. Obama expressed concern about violence against Honduran journalists during a telephone conversation between the two leaders earlier this week. President Lobo said Mr. Obama, "offered help to investigate the assassination of the journalists."

President Lobo spoke to VOA in Miami where he was participating in the Fifth Summit on Latin America, sponsored by the Center for Hemispheric Studies at the University of Miami.

The full interview will air on Foro Interamericano Friday, April 30, at 8:30 a.m. Foro Interamericano is a weekly one-hour news magazine show hosted by Patricia Dalmasy. The interview will also be available live and on demand on the VOA Spanish language web page, VOANews.com/spanish/news/.

The latest violence in Honduras occurred last week when a gunman opened fire on the host of a television program. Human rights groups say it is the latest in a string of recent attacks on reporters. At least five others have been killed, including two who were shot while driving in rural Honduras last month.

The Voice of America, which first went on the air in 1942, is a multimedia international broadcasting service funded by the U.S. Government through the Broadcasting Board of Governors. VOA broadcasts approximately 1,500 hours of news, information, educational, and cultural programming every week to an estimated worldwide audience of more than 125 million people. Programs are produced in 44 languages and are intended exclusively for audiences outside of the United States.

For more information, call VOA Public Relations at (202) 203-4959, or e-mail askvoa@voanews.com.